Bush, Kerry belong to Yale’s elite secret society
By Joyce Tang
March 8, 2004 9:00 p.m.
When voters go the polls in November to elect a president, the
two major candidates they can choose from will have a windowless
tomb, secret initiation rites and a private island on the St.
Lawrence River as part of their personal histories.
Both incumbent President Bush and likely Democratic challenger
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., are Yale graduates, 1968 and 1966
respectively, and are also members of Yale’s secret society
Skull and Bones.
Each year, the exclusive society “taps” 15
distinguished third-year Yale undergraduates to participate in an
initiation ceremony that “has bonded diplomats, media moguls,
bankers and spies into a lifelong, multi-generational fellowship
far more influential than any fraternity,” wrote Ron
Rosenbaum, class of 1968, in a New York Observer article.
“What’s so staggering about the fact that the two
presidential candidates come from this particular society is that
this is a tiny club ““ there are only 800 living members (in
the whole country,)” said Alexandra Robbins, who authored an
exposé on the society, “Secrets of the Tomb.”
Skull and Bones typically selects its new members, or Bonesmen,
by drawing from distinguished student leaders of campus
organizations. Kerry was tapped because he was president of the
political union.
But Bush was likely tapped because of his family’s legacy
with Skull and Bones as both Bush’s father and grandfather
were members, Robbins said.
Robbins, a Yale graduate of 1998, whose next book is an
undercover look into sorority life, said she became interested in
writing a book on Skull and Bones when Bush ran for president in
2000.
She has interviewed over 100 Bonesmen for her book, even though
Bonesmen are traditionally sworn to secrecy (even the rosters are
secret).
This presidential election will be the first Bonesman versus
Bonesman contest, though the society’s interests will not
necessarily be split, Robbins said.
“I’ve talked to several Bonesman and they view it as
a win-win situation. There’ll be hundreds of thousands
of dollars in contributions. Of course, some of them have their
political leanings “¦ though, as a group, they’re going
to be happy no matter what ““ because automatically,
they’ll have a connection in the White House for the next
four years,” she said.
Though there is some speculation that Kerry and Bush may have
participated in Skull and Bones initiation rites together since
they attended school at roughly the same time, this is highly
unlikely because only 15 Yale seniors are Bonesman at any given
year because the previous 15 would have already graduated.
Donald Etra, Yale class of 1968 and a Los Angeles-area lawyer
who was in Skull and Bones with Bush, said Kerry and Bush
didn’t know each other at Yale.
Etra is currently representing Andrew Dyck, a UCLA classics
professor on trial for charges of sending harmful materials to a
minor, and represented Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, the director of
UCLA Hillel, in a separate case.
Bush’s campaign declined to comment on his involvement
with the society. A spokesman for the Kerry campaign was not
available for comment.
Etra, who said he has known Bush for 40 years and remains good
friends with the president, said it doesn’t hurt to have
connections through Skull and Bones.
“You never know who’s going to be the next president
of the United States,” he said.
Though Skull and Bones is not the wealthiest senior society at
Yale, it is by far the most influential and powerful, Robbins
said.
“The whole purpose is to get members into positions of
power and then get them to hire more Bonesmen. Bush has done a
good job of that; Bush has nearly 10 in his assemblage of
advisers,” she said.
The power Skull and Bones’ members seem to wield over so
many domains, including government and corporations, has spawned
much speculation and many conspiracy theories. For instance, Skull
and Bones has been tied to theories linking it to the Central
Intelligence Agency, the Bay of Pigs invasion and U.S. involvement
in Vietnam. Even its secret initiation ceremonies and other
activities run amid wild rumors.
“A lot of the conspiracy theories are blown out of
proportion, though they are sometimes based on some truths,”
Robbins said. “When the new seniors come back, the first
thing they do is recount their sexual history, from their first
masturbation to present, for an entire evening.”
Other facets of the secrecy surrounding the society include the
private island and a “Tomb” where Skull members convene
for meetings and activities. Its “Tap Day” results were
once published on the front page of the New York Times, according
to Yale archives, but rosters are now secret.
Robbins was the first non-member to infiltrate the society,
partially because she was a member of Scroll and Key, another
secret society. The Bonesmen thought she was on their side, she
said, but some were openly aggressive.
“I’ve realized that members of the society take some
things so seriously,” she said, referring to threats made to
her by a Bonesman who said he would destroy her career.
Skull and Bones’ secretive nature was the inspiration for
the 2000 movie “The Skulls.”
“The movie was loosely based, but it did encapsulate all
the notions that society thought about them ““ they believed
everything in that movie,” Robbins said.
